3-in-line STV: A prototype to test the concept, built mid 2002.

Made from a Suzuki 80 step through (free) and a couple of 10” scooter wheels (20 euro). The idea is to test if any of the supposed benefits can be achieved, and what problems there might be in applying these. Middleton Link is a solution to a bump steer problem in this concept.

Benefits are: increased contact patch to unsprung mass ratio, increased contact patch to tyre width ratio, effectively reduced unsprung mass for a given contact patch area, contact with the road with at least one steered wheel on sharp bumps, second tyre running in drier road surface under straight line braking conditions, lower propensity to front wheel traction loss in cornering, potentially lower frontal area and un-steered suspension. Actual mass of the complete system is less than a single Kawasaki GPZ500S 16” front wheel and tyre.

The 2005 Quasar outing will take place in Hastings over the week-end on September 10th/11th. The format will be similar to previous years with us meeting up on St Leonards sea-front on Saturday afternoon from around 4:30pm onwards and moving on to Bo Peep pub for supper. There will be a ride-out on Sunday morning and we'll finish up at the Six Bells at Chiddingly for a late lunch.

All Quasar owners, Quasar enthusiasts, or owners of other Feet-first machinery are invited to join us.

It will be a long slow process, but I'm going to try to document the building of my FF machine on this page.

The machine will be built round a folded aerolam tub, with a cradle under and partly round the engine, continuing into a triangular cross-section box containing the fuel tank and carrying the seat, sweeping up at the rear into a backrest bulkhead, with the swinging arm pivoting at the back of the central box. A tunnel will be formed through the box containing an extension drive shaft. The machine will be about 10 inches longer than standard.

The first two drawings attached show the Hossack style front fork, and the main aerolam spar of the fork as a developed sheet ready to be cut. The drawings are all but finished, and will shortly be going for quotation for NC milling with an old client who has machines capable of cutting the job. It is possible to cut four sets of uprights from an 8x4 sheet of material, so I will have three spare sets that I may offer to the group.

I've posted a load of pictures to Flickr of my attempt at adding a Volvo seat. Click on each picture and you'll see lots of annotations describing the detail.

After much hacksawing, cursing and abuse of power tools, I now have a Volvo seat
mounted on my Burger400K3. Lessons I've learnt:-

- I'm crap at this metalwork stuff

- I should have listened to Royce, the Volvo 340 seat is the best. I was seduced by the fake leatherette of the seat from a bigger model but it doesn't work so well in this application. The problem is the mounting mechanisms on both sides are a good 4 to 5cms lower relative to the seat.

As you can see from the photo, it is possible to fit a Volvo Seat on a Burgman!

This is the next stage in making my Burgman more of an FF. I got the seat from the Volvo Breakers on the A1 near St Neots for a mere 25 quid. It's a leather seat so won't need recovering. I had quite a choice and eventually plumped for an early 7 series instead of the usual 340 seat because of the leather, the filled in head rest and the fact that the lumbar adjust and the rake adjust are both on the left hand side. Not only that but it's got a heated back and seat base.

Hi folks,

During the '80s I helped build a couple of FFs. The first was based on a BSA A50. Basically all that was done was to extend the swing arm, so that a high backed seat could fit down behind the carbs. The steering was linked back to a second steering head where the handlebars were attached. It was a joy to ride, after you'd gotten used to the way it handled and steered. Later it was enclosed in fiber glass. It worked well, visibility was the only shortfall; you couldn't see much over the top of the forks!

Hi guys, especially to some of my old friends like Paul Blez if you're reading this...

I've now owned a Silver Wing for almost 3 years (bought it with 11k on the clock) and covered another 20K+ miles in that time. It has taken me back and forth between Sydenham and City of London every day with occasional trips to Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg etc, without breaking down ONCE!. In fact the only time it has been off the road was for a week after an accident I had with a minicab turning right without indicating. The damage was close to £2K but all is well again and the bike looks as good as new.

Has any one any information about an extende wheelbase on any megascooter ?
Cheers

As promised at Beaulieu, here are PDF versions of the plans used to make the current version of the ComforTmax. As I have an A3 printer at home, all the drawings are that size, so you may have to do something creative if your limit is A4. If anyone wants the (sorry, only 2D) CAD files in DXF or DWG format, please contact me at angib (at) blueyonder.co.uk

All these drawings, except the fuel tank, were made as guides to the guy who did the metalwork on my bike. They are not sufficiently detailed to give to someone to make the parts and they assume you have a Tmax in front of you to work from.

Here's a PDF sent in by Andrew Gibben on steering linkage layout on Funny Front Ends. (FFE)

For photos from the latest gathering of UK FFers, go to 'Events and Meetings' in the Image Galleries section and click on Beaulieu 2005. On a blisteringly hot weekend in June, this entertaining annual event at the historic village of Beaulieu in the New Forest saw most of 'The Usual Suspects' turn up, along with some welcome newcomers. Most notably, Beaulieu 2005 was the first public appearance of Andrew Gibbens' ComforTmax and its superb level of finish was much admired. Originally transformed to FF mode by Royce Creasey way back in 2002, Andrew has spent much of his spare time over the last three years making top-quality bodywork and seating to make a 'proper job' that almost looks as if it could be an official Yamaha option. (For pix of how it looked back in 2002, go to 'Royce Creasey's creations'.)

Hi I'm in northern california and while I've been interested in FF machines for a long time I've only recently gotten serious about owning one.

I've built some pretty unique bikes and trikes over the years but it's been a long time. My biggest claim to fame was a buggy wheeled speedway bike that got disqualified without any explaination except "you gotta be kidding me"

I'd heard that there were Quasars to be bought, but imagine none of them in the US,
If anyone has an unfinished project they would like to cash out of to move on to another, I'd love to hear about it.

Mudd

I have just bought a Honda CH250 and am planning to convert it to a FF machine. It was great to discover this site, and I was astonished to see so many versions of the concept have already been produced by individuals without access to fully equipped workshops. Such a body of experience should perhaps be brought together to produce a fully marketable product.
Now a question: When it comes to designing an enclosed PTW necessitating the use of outriggers, has thought been given to the possibility of utilising aerodynamic lift to raise these? With lightweight, strong modern materials I'd have thought this possible, although I acknowledge it goes no way to solving the locking/unlocking requirement.

Not sure if this is the right way to do this (perhaps its a FF entrance exam, that I have failed)
I rather fancied a FF motorcycle with either a K75 or Boxer engine.
Any idea how I would start such a project. I have access to engineers/machine shops at work but only have mechanical skills myself.
I guess it may be easier to buy something and covert or at least ride around to get some ideas.
Where may I find auch a thing ?
I presently own an R1150GS, a K75s, an R65, 2 velo 350's a Suzuki 600, a Moto Guzzi Stornello 125 and 2 Yamaha RS125's.
I also have an ex Police R100RT that is for sale ('83 £1200) but may do a p/x on this or any of the others.

I passed my motorbike test, at the first attempt, aged 16 on a BSA 250 C11G a VERY long time ago. My next bike, and my favourite so far, was an AJS 350 Model 8. It was 'traded-in' for an MG sports car (TD). This I sold to help with the deposit for a house. There followed a donated Messerschmitt KR200 bubble-car then, with the arrival of a daughter, another MG (YB). There was an interlude of a few years before I came back to 2 wheels as a 'second vehicle' so that my wife could use the car. I started with a cheap BSA Bantam (175) which was followed by a Ducati 250, a Jawa 350 and a Honda CX500. This I have had for over 20 years but I have hardly used in recent years.

I've just been fitting a Malossi kit to my Suzuki AN400 Megascoot. The first stage is to remove the lower left body panel. This has an astonishing number of little plastic nubbins that hold it on. The foot rest rubbers also have a very large number of bits that plug into the bodywork and you have to get under them to reach some of the fixings. Eventually you get the bodywork off, and the next piece is the CVT air filter cover, and then the plastic CVT cover. That gets you to here.

The next piece to remove is the inner cover. This is ally and has two dowels that eventually get stuck, bottom right and top left. The cover has an outrigger bearing for the clutch mechanism. Sometimes the shaft spins in the bearing making a nasty screech at very low speeds. You can safely ignore this as I'm not sure how to fix it if it happens to your bike. With the ally cover taken off, we have this.

Here below is a fairly definitive list of machines built by Malcolm Newell. (words mostly by Paul Blezard) This was not easy to compile bearing in mind that most of the machines had the same trade number plate on them when being used by Malcolm, probably no chassis plate and certainly no "official" Malcolm-applied serial number. This list is quite old now. Can anyone fill in more detail?

Paul Blezard's potted FF history
I've been riding scooters and motorcycles for over 40 years and writing about FFs for more than 30. I was 'turned on' to FFs by reading Royce Creasey's HighTech articles in Bike magazine in 1979-80 and by meeting Malcolm Newell with the Cibie Z13 Phasar at the first NEC motorcycle show in 1981. I have ridden a very high percentage of the FFs to be seen on this site, (something like 50 in all), and had articles published about most of them.